"Here I go!"

  Iris thrust its claw on the demon's den while saying that.

  The wall made from earth magic broke without any resistance.

  "Well then, I'll be waiting above!"

  Iris flew above after it said that.

  "…Huh? There's no one inside?"

  There's only one room in the demon's den.

  And there is no one inside that room… or what it looks like.

  Well, in short, it's a concealment magic.

  The demon that was outside probably informed them somehow when it saw Iris.

  It was far away so I didn't catch communication-magic-kind of mana, but the 【Active Detection】 mana got disordered a bit after all.

  『Can you hear me, you two?』


  "Uwaa!"

  "W-what's this!"

  『It's a short-range telepathic magic to protect us against bugs. You can reply by thinking inside your head without letting out your voice.』


  『Inside my head…』


  『…L-Like this?』


  『Ooh! I could hear Ruli's voice even though her mouth isn't moving!』


  『Alma's voice too! Magic like this exists too…』


  『With my crest, I can only use it at a short distance, like in this situation. To explain this, in short, you can't see the enemy because of concealment.』


  『…Concealment?』


  『Yeah. It's a magic to hide your form and make it hard to detect mana detection. That said.』


  『Which means, with 【Passive Detection】… Un?』


  『I can't find it…』


  The two immediately concentrated on detection, but they couldn't seem to find the enemy.

  Well, these demons might be difficult for their first time.

  Particularly the one besides Elhart, they wouldn't have known if I didn't tell them.

  『Normally mana reactions are bigger than the surrounding mana… But the concealment magic they're using is a type that completely erase their mana emission. Don't you feel a place where the mana is thinner instead? …Ah, we shouldn't let them know that we find them, so don't point your finger if you do find one.』


  『Hm… Ah the corner over there!』


  Alma looked toward a corner of the room.

  『Correct.』


  『True, the mana there feels thinner… But I can't find the other one… there's two of them right?』


  『Yeah. You don't have to worry about that one. It can't be found after all.』


  That one must also think that no one can find it.

  If we attack Elhart, I'm sure it'll choose to forsake Elhart and continue hiding.

  Demons don't risk go out of their way to help another demon weaker than themselves unless doing so benefits them.

  『And so, let's count you two as our firepower this time and have you defeat Elhart.』


  『…Eh?』


  『No no, that's impossible…』


  Frankly speaking, I can instantly kill Elhart with 【Special Mana Enchant】 right now.

  However, the other demon isn't that easy.

  In a normal fight, I'd need quite a lot of mana to kill it.

  In consideration of the possibility of surprise attacks on our way back, I'd like to reserve my mana as much as possible.

  …Moreover, we have a target practice that's just right here. It's a waste for me to defeat it.

  『It's alright. I've given you a new magic circle to make that happens.』


  The magic circle I gave them this time is a bit more complex than the last one.

  However, Ruli should be able to produce it now.

  『Eeh, Mathi-kun knew this would happen before we went inside!?』


  『I wasn't 100% sure. Well, I thought this would happen for 80%.』


  『…By the way, what's the remaining 20%?』


  『They would attack us the moment we stepped inside the room.』


  When we see that there's no one inside and go to check it with our guard down, they'd attack us from behind.

  It's an effective tactic when the concealment is working right.

  『Surprise attack, how can you so calm…』


  『It's fine. I planned to kill both of them if that happened.』


  Or rather, that'd have made this easier.

  There is nothing easier to deal with than an exposed surprise attack.

  『Is there a situation where even Mathi-kun can't cope with?』


  『There is.』


  For example, if the nuclear fusion magic is activated in front of me right now, even I can't stop it.

  I can probably barely survive at most.

  『…Un. I could somehow sense that you were imagining some unthinkable situation…』


  Alma sounded like she couldn't believe it.

  There was no sound since it was through transmission magic though.

  『There was no surprise attack anyway, all's well… And so, let's do this!』


  『Eh, so sudden…』


  『It's alright. You've never seen such an easy mark like this before right?』


  As I said that, I slipped interference magic into Elharts's concealment magic, tearing it down it little by little.

  In just two seconds, the concealment magic was completely torn down, and we could see Elhart with our naked eyes.

  …Elhart itself doesn't notice that its concealment magic has been broken, exposing its foolish look to us.